In a stunningly weak week in the rankings, the top single was fripSide‘s “sister’s noise”. Selling 27,275 copies, it normally wouldn’t have qualified for a mention here, if not for the fact that it took the top spot.
Going all the way down to number 7 before finding something crossing the 50k line, we find “RPG” from Sekai no Owari, which added 13,171 to its total in its strong second week, bringing it to 92,353.
At #8, Sexy Zone‘s “Real Sexy!/BAD BOYS” sold 12,840 for a two-week total of 151,703. That’s close enough to 10% to be considered average. “Sexy Summer ni Yuki ga Furu” sold 9,308 copies in its second week, so while there may still be complicating factors, it’s safe to say that this is a genuine bump up for the group, and a recovery from the low produced by “Sexy Summer”.
Kanjani8’s “Hesomagari/Koko ni Shikanai Keshiki” took #13, now boasting a three-week total of 320,277. With this single still in the standings, the news is that the group will be releasing its next single on June 12th, so they’re doing that same oddly tight release schedule thing they did last year.
Fukuyama Masaharu-san was at #17, with his “Tanjoubi niwa Masshiro na Yuri wo/Get the Groove” tacking on 4,384 for a five-week total of 144,789.
“Maji LOVE 2000%” from ST☆RISH got #17, selling a total of 66,356 in three weeks.
Taking #22 in its fifteenth week, SKE48’s “Choco no Dorei”now has a grand total of 671,623.
SMAP’s “Mistake!/Battery” was back in the mix again at #24. It now has an eleven-week total of 217,954.
The top album of the week was Domoto Tsuyoshi-san’s “Kaba” (カバ), selling 77,440 copies.
Yuzu was right behind at #2, selling 28,487 of “LAND” for a two-week total of 117,821.
At #4, “Stranger” from Hoshino Gen-san tacked on 10,715 in its second week for a total of 53.596.
“Lesson 1” from E-girls crossed the 100k mark in its fourth week, adding 9,910 to get to 103,883.
Funky Monkey Babys is still in it, of course. Their “Last Best” album only dropped one spot in its seventh week, spending the week at #6, now with a total of 324,931.
Finally, Golden Bomber’s “The Past Masters Vol.1” was at #9 with a three-week total of 137,272.
J-Everything 
A couple days late, but should return to a regular schedule after this as I’m done with school stuff for the year! Now then, this week – singles on the whole do look much, MUCH stronger than last week. Albums are … passable. Not great, but not horrible either. The most exciting thing is once again my recommendations though – the last song in particular. Just … so excited to show you it. So let’s get into the sales!
Singles: After the first three days on the shelf, KAT-TUN’s “FACE to face” has claimed the number 1 spot with 107,680 sold thus far. This is … fairly in line for them, but given the weaker than normal weekly adjustments that we’ve been seeing this year, I’m wondering if this won’t break 150k. We’ll see at the end of the week I guess. Following them is T.M. Revolution and Nana Mizuki’s collaboration single “Preserved Roses” with 82,424 copies sold. This should break 100k first week, which I’m quite happy about – both are artists who can actually sing and I’m glad to see them do well. At #3 is GENERATIONS (from EXILE Tribe) with “Love You More”, which has sold 59,957 copies in the first three days. They had a huge drop today, but should still sell around what they usually do (71-72k) given their stronger start. Also of note is Spitz’s “Sarasara / Boku wa Kitto Tabi ni Deru” hovering between #4-5. All in all, great week for Singles.
Albums: The top album for the week after the first three days is Yazawa Eikichi’s “Yazawa Eikichi ALL TIME BEST ALBUM” which has sold 58,030 copies. This is doing pretty solid and will most likely end up around where Dots “Kaba” was in sales last week (provided it remains consistent). At #2 is NAOTO INTI RAYMI’s “Nice catch the moment!” with 27,347 copies sold thus far. I have a soft spot for NAOTO INTI RAYMI since he provided backing vocals on Mr.Children’s “Supermarket Fantasy” Tour, so I’m glad to see that his album’s doing pretty well. I predict that Domoto Tsuyoshi’s “Kaba” and Yuzu’s “LAND” will fight for the #3 spot this week, and Dots seems to be winning thus far, but it’s hard to say how the weekend will go. Not a great album week, but not a terrible one either.
Now, song recommendations. Firstly, in something a bit out of my usual range of song selections, I’m going to recommend Namie Amuro’s new song “Contrail” (and the snippet of “Can You Feel This Love” that’s present afterwards). It’s pop, but it’s both that I don’t dislike. Best I can say is to give it a try and see for yourself.
https://soundcloud.com/uhplus/contrail
Next up is a long piece of EXILE’s new song “Flower Song” which I feel goes back to the sound from them that I like – not overly electronic and more focused on vocals and melody.
Lastly … this is perhaps one of my favorite song releases of the year, and one that I mentioned that I’d be really excited about some months back. Mr.Children’s new song, “REM” has finally leaked. We only have a radio rip so far, so the quality is a tad lacking, but nonetheless … I couldn’t be happier with this song! It’s my favorite release from them since SENSE, and their most aggressive song since FAKE. Yet at the same time, it’s a different take on rock than what they’ve done in the past. I also cannot wait to hear this in high quality, since the instrumental sounds quite amazing (lots of solid guitar, but also something flute-like in the background). I’m excited and hopefully that this means their next album will be rockier as well. If this video goes down before you can listen to it, keep looking for the song. If you really can’t find it, let me know – I have an mp3 of it that I can send you. Now, enjoy!
Let me know what you think of them!
KAT-TUN looks very much in-line with expectations. They’ve been hovering around 150k-160k, so if they don’t break 150k it’d be an unfortunate perturbation, but nothing to worry about since it doesn’t look like they’ll miss by much.
The T.M. Revolution and Mizuki Nana news looks great, though. I agree that they deserve much more recognition and success. Otherwise, the singles look to be going strictly as-expected.
I don’t know how Yazawa-san normally sells. He’s a bit of a legend, but not the kind that sells big, apparently.
Yeah, I first noticed Naoto Inti Raymi from “Supermarket Fantasy”, too. Looks like the results on this album will be a step up.
Musically, there’s nothing wrong with “Contrail”, but I think you can probably guess by now what I’m going to say. The vocals are way too computer-processed for my tastes. The refrain is a good contrast to the verses, though, and there are musical touches that make it an above average pop song, but not too much more than that. The snippet of “Can You Feel This Love” sounds unbalanced and rushed – I do not like it. Perhaps in context with the full song it makes a bit more sense. There’s a purpose for these sorts of songs – I could imagine having both songs in my running playlist, for instance – but I can’t see much to recommend them artistically.
Seems like I’ve already heard “Flower Song” a lot. It’s a clean song. Still very EXILE in its tone, it’s easier on to appreciate than some of their others songs. It doesn’t have the “Rising Sun” repetitiveness that irritated me – at least, it didn’t get to that point when the DJs started talking, but I don’t know how long it goes on after that. It is truly easy-listening, but while the vocals are definitely a step up from the Namie Amuro song, the musical complexity has dropped down dramatically.
Unfortunately, the person who uploaded Mr.Children’s “REM” decided to set the video to private, so I couldn’t hear it. I’d probably prefer to hear a good quality version in order to render an opinion on it, anyway.
Thanks for the update on the rankings and the recommendations!